The ceasefire is holding so far

[Paragon]

According to the foot news in my area of London, a sizable number of TFG troops of Mogadishu origin have defected. Around 500 of them with 10 vehecles, I heard. Whether this is true or not, we shall see.

[xiinfaniin]

Ethiopian military officials, clan elders agree truce to stop fighting in Somali capital

 

Friday, March 23, 2007

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - A truce Ethiopian military officials and elders of the dominant clan in Somalia's capital agreed to on Friday was holding, except for skirmishes that left at least one dead. The truce follows two days of fighting during which dozens of people, mainly civilians, were killed.

 

The truce was scheduled to take effect at 12 p.m. (0900GMT) Friday but sporadic gunfire could be heard around the former Defense Ministry building in southern Mogadishu, which has been one of the front lines in the two days of fighting.

 

The rest of the capital remained calm Friday.

 

One civilian died early Friday, possibly from a stray bullet from the gunfire that began in the morning, said Mohamed Barre Olad. Olad saw the body as he walked to his home, which is near the former Defense Ministry headquarters. He said he saw also a wounded man being taken to a hospital in a wheelchair.

 

An elder, Mohammed Ibrahim Aden, told The Associated Press that 25 ****** clan elders met with "several Ethiopian (military) officials" late Thursday and agreed to stop hostilities and begin talks.

 

"We have asked the Ethiopian officials to pull their troops back from front line areas and force government troops to do the same," Aden said. "We have also promised on our part to pull our fighters back from the battle fronts."

 

Somali intelligence officials ordered Wednesday that the satellite television station Al-Jazeera close its Mogadishu office but they did not give any reason for the order, said Abshir Mohamed, the channel's head of administration in Mogadishu. Mohamed said that the letter was signed by the city's intelligence chief Ahmed Hassan Ali.

 

Information Minister Madobe Nunow Mohamed said he has not seen the letter. "But I will tell you that Al-Jazeera has conveyed the wrong messages to the world," he told The Associated Press. "We will shut down additional radio stations and channels if they distort facts."

 

Hundreds of residents had fled their homes Thursday during a second day of fighting between Islamic insurgents and Somali and Ethiopian troops in which at least four people were killed and six wounded. The fighting seemed to be less fierce than the previous day's battles, during which at least 21 people were killed and more than 120 people wounded.

 

"This is a tragic situation," U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Eric Laroche said. "Tens of thousands of people are fleeing Mogadishu, and civilian casualties are mounting daily."

 

Government officials had vowed Thursday to continue fighting the insurgents in Mogadishu who they said are led by the newly chosen head of Somalia's al-Qaida cell, Aden Hashi Ayro. The suspected al-Qaida leader is one of the people the U.S. targeted in a January airstrike in Somalia.

 

Ayro is a top leader of the ousted Islamic courts and the government had reports he was in Mogadishu, said Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle. The Council of Islamic Courts that Ayro served as military commander was driven from the capital in December after six months in power. But the group has promised to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war, and mortar attacks pound the capital nearly everyday.

 

Counterterrorism experts believe Ayro, who is in his mid-30s, received al-Qaida training in Afghanistan. U.N. officials have linked him to the killings of 16 people. Counterterrorism officials also believe he was involved in a plot — never carried out — to bring down an Ethiopian airliner.

 

Government officials have said the government's offensive was focused on parts of the capital controlled by the Habr Gedir clan, a branch of the larger ****** clan. The Habr Gedir clan is a major supporter of the more radical elements of the Islamic courts and remains opposed to the government.

 

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991. The current administration has failed to assert control throughout the country, and the African Union has deployed a small peacekeeping force to defend it.

 

But daily violence has continued in the capital, with civilians caught in the crossfire bearing the brunt of the violence.

 

Associated Press writers Salad Duhul in Mogadishu contributed to this report.

[ansaar17]

So who really is fighting here? the islamist or tribal militias, or both?

 

The goal of ICU should have been targetting the ethiopians, it seems the jihad is being hijacked by tribal bigots.

 

The attack should have been on the ethiopian troops first and foremost, they cannot play neutral or else they would have achieved their goal.

 

I hope it doesn't end like this.

[xiinfaniin]

Fresh clashes in Mogadishu despite ceasefire announcement

 

by Ali Musa Abdi

Friday, March 23, 2007

 

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Somalia's powerful ****** clan said Friday it had reached a ceasefire agreement with the Ethiopian army, even as heavy fighting erupted for a third straight day in the capital Mogadishu.

 

Ethiopian military officials confirmed that a ceasefire meeting took place in the Mogadishu residence of warlord Abdi Hassan Awale Qeybdid, but fell short of confirming the truce.

 

Meanwhile, AFP correspondents and witnesses reported sporadic gunfire between Ethiopian troops and insurgents in Mogadishu after two straight days of heavy artillery exchnages that claimed at least 24 lives and left hundreds wounded.

 

Residents reported exchanges of fire at the defence ministry headquarters where Ethiopian troops are based.

 

"There is no face-to-face fighting, but Ethiopians in the camp are receiving shots from long range machine guns and they are returning fire in their direction," southern Mogadishu resident Ahmed Yolah told AFP.

 

"The neighbourhood is very tense," said another resident Mohamed Aden Ibrahim.

 

A spokesman for ****** clan elders, Ugas Abdi Dahir Mohamed, said earlier that they had agreed with Ethiopian military officials to implement a ceasefire.

 

Suspected Islamist insurgents are largely drawn from the capital's dominant ****** clan.

 

"The Ethiopians will remain in their military compound and will not militarily engage with Somalis. And for our part, the ****** will not fire any shot and will respect the ceasefire," the spokesman said.

 

The ****** elders command respect owing to their traditional role of solving disputes, but their ability to apply a ceasefire is limited by their clan's division into numerous sub-clans with competing interests.

 

The ****** spokesman said the deal also covered the Somali troops who rely on their well-trained and well-equipped Ethiopian counterparts for firepower against the insurgents.

 

The government, which has vowed to keep fighting until it defeats the insurgency, accepted the idea of a ceasefire but said it should have been involved in the talks. The government did not participate because the ****** elders do not recognise its legality.

 

"A ceasefire, if any, should be reached and signed with the government if necessary," said spokesman Hussein Mohamed Muhamoud.

 

But he conceded: "It is good to hear from killers and violent people that they will respect peace."

 

Clan sources said the agreement was the first since Somali-Ethiopian forces routed the Islamist fighters from much of south and central Somalia in January, sparking a deadly guerrilla-style insurgency that has left scores dead.

 

However, Somali clans have been notorious in violating truce agreements in the past.

 

Western intelligence sources have warned that Somalia risks becoming a terrorist haven if efforts to empower the government fail in the face of fierce opposition from clan warlords.

 

A small force of some 1,500 Ugandan troops is in Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission aimed to help government troops regain control and enable Ethiopian forces to leave.

 

The United Nations on Thursday condemned the latest flare up and called for an immediate truce to allow access of humanitarian supplies to tens of thousands of displaced civilians.

 

Somalia has in been in turmoil since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre cleared the way for a deadly power struggle.

 

Source: AFP, Mar 23, 2007

[xiinfaniin]

abu ansaar17, the situation is very fluid right now. It seems particular clans are beginning to waver in the face of determined tfg. Ethiopia wants to play safe. It’s not in their interest to be seen siding with a particular clan. So it seems it begun to contact certain tribal elders and tame their animosity against it.

 

But when the bush comes to shove, that kind a stance is untenable one for both Ethiopia and these elders. The real sentiment of the fighting force is against Ethiopia, and not against Puntlanders. But you have people like Ulusow and others like him who wants to appease the powers that be while opposing tfg. He wants to challenge the old man’s ascendancy in Xamar on clannish grounds. It won’t work, I predict.

 

Those knights whose intent is purely to drive Ethiopian forces are the real power to reckon with. Waxaa kale waa dameeri dhaan raacday adeer.

[Fiqikhayre]

Wallahi I'm not really in the mood. I don't know but I feel a deep sadness.

 

That sadness was first anger but now for me it suddenly sinks in. My conscious won't allow me, what happened two days ago in the capital city of Moqadisho.

 

How much of animosity and hatred must these people feel? Wallahi I cannot forgive how some people in here managed to belittle what took place.

 

They tried to belittle it or even to justify it and some even went further to feel a sense of triumph. I cannot help but be shocked about these peoples barbaric and inhumane way of rationalising. Wallah this people, who yesterday and the day before expressed their happiness or even felt good about what happened in the capital, should be not regarded as humans. Anyone who did not express his shock, sense of bewilderment and utter disgust is truly himself capable of committing such gross and vile inhumane acts. I cannot help but think that some people did even not dislike that act inside their hearts but were actually smiling to unconsciously to themselves or being content in their deep heart. Shame about you I say.

 

I see some people who say that they are religiously inclined but who are far from the moral teachings of our religion and the sense of justice that it provides us with. No act can accuse that inhumane, evil, savagery, barbaric and monstrous act committed in Mogadishu.

 

I see those people, who are content and happy about this latest savagery that took place and who have no moral qualms about that horrific act, in fact they try to excuse it and make justifications for it.

 

I can't get the pictures out of my head, where I saw children with wooden sticks, shoes and other sharp objects standing on top of a dead Somali man, whose legs were tight together and his arms too and children, man with long beards and cimaamado, women with jalabiib standing on top of that dead soldier holding sticks and presuming mutilating that dead body.

 

I saw stones lying around that dead and deceased body and the worst act was when they actually set those dead corpses ablaze. No one can justify such acts.

 

I feel horrible wallahi because there was no one single Ethiopian amongst the mutilated and torched dead corpses. They were all Somali and primarily from Puntland although there was one guy from Hiiraan who was set ablaze whilst still alive and confessing the shahaada.

 

What hatred must this people feel? Are they human? What can a dead body do to you? What harm? Are this people Muslims? If so, don't they know that the dead person has met his creator and right and wrong he has committed Allah will deal with that soul?

 

It is a haraam deed and not something from the culture. The other thing is health implications, how can you stand happily there smiling to the camera whilst two feet from you a dead body is burning and emitting all sorts of harmful chemicals from his dead and deceased bodies. Don't they fear for their health?

 

These boys were 18 and 19 years of age. Young man, who came to Mogadishu in the hope to aid this government so in order Somalia can have peace and a government. Whatever they did or whoever they sided with, there's no moral justification for disfiguring, mutilating, stoning, sticking sharp objects onto a dead body or burning it. Simply no moral justification and I hope they pay for their crimes inshallah. I don't feel any hate or animosity to any people nor have I ever felt deep hate but what I want is that the people who were behind this to be brought to justice.

 

I'm not saying the government going in heavily in densely populated are but what I want is the criminals, the leaders and soldiers who instigated this to be brought to justice. They're cowards, they actually were the soldiers who killed those men and then called the children, youth, women, old man and other man to the place to participate in that kind of evil and vile act. Somalis have really deep hatred for one another and I really don't feel that they're capable of such vile acts. What do you want to achieve. This was a media stunt to show the people that this was a very serious matter, a matter of life and death and resurrect old hostilities. Wallah I'm speechless. They certainly achieved their objective. South Mogadishu populace came out in force and participated in this evil and vile act.

 

I don't want women and children to pay for this. I know these cowards they're hiding behind women and children and they think that they're save from any measures or initiatives that will make them pay for their crimes.

 

That’s why I say, allow and give the people time to leave that district and vacate it so the criminals can pay for the crimes against human decency they committed. They sank indeed to the lowest level. Not even the most primitive nation or people amongst the nation of Adam even acts like that. They bury their dead whether they fall in hostilities or they die naturally but never do they disfigure, mutilate, stone and burn them to death. The people who committed this brought it to a whole new level but I want them to pay, the people that did this not in the same way but certainly with death inshallah and if they don't pay for their crimes in this world then the will pay in inshallah in the hereafter.

 

I don't care of this soldiers where from Puntland I would feel the same outrage if they were from any other Somali region or in fact any human-being or animal. I wouldn't even allow a dead animal to be mistreated or even a living animal set ablaze. What happened two days ago was an utter disgrace and the whole world was stunned and amazed at the sheer barbaric and inhumane behaviour of these people.

 

However why I'm so angry is that in fact I know that these boys will not be avenged by bringing the criminals and perpetrators to justice but that the whole issue has shifted.

 

Today ina Dhiigsokeeye tried to avenge those boys but when the government troops wanted to attack the people who were behind that savagery and make them pay, the Ethiopians intervened and said 'No, you have to talk'.

 

What is the government doing, they can't do anything they only sit idle there and the troops are shocked to the core. They want to teach those criminals a lesson that they will never forget but who will allow it for them?

 

How can you negotiate with the same man that ordered the disfiguration, mutilation, stoning and burning and setting ablaze like they were frying a fish? Tell me who in their right mind would negotiate with them.

 

Wallahi this government will and cannot do something because the Ethiopians stand on their way to teach these criminals a lesson that will make them pay for their inhuman and vile crime. I have always been someone who likes justice and I want justice for the badly mutilated and burnt bodies of the young soldiers who came from Puntland and I also want that same justice for the soldier who came from Hiiraan who was set ablaze whilst affirming the shahaada.

 

I say no negotiations but the government is urged by the Ethiopians to engage in a cease fire with those criminals and for that to happen I really do feel betrayed and bad.

 

I must also say that I thought long and hard and decided not to share a platform with those folks, who celebrated, felt apathetic or smiled to themselves deep down. I say shame on you and I believe you're capable of even more, because once you normalised such gross and evil acts, then it is only proper that you see it fit as something normal and maybe next time you go to Somalia, you will participate in the angry crowd that drags, mutilates, stones, spits, disfigures, inserts/injects sharp objects into the dead corpse, laughs, smiles at the camera, take a souvenir picture or what better souvenir than an actual body part of the dead person you mistreated before you actually burn it and set it ablaze. Shame on you I say and justice will inshallah come, it will come inshallah as Allah does not support the wicked and evil transgressors.

 

To the dead soldiers, I say rest in peace and may Allah have mercy upon your souls. Ameen.

 

To the perpetrators and sympathisers, today you laugh and enjoy but there will be a day whereby you shall be judged by a higher authority to what inhumane, evil, monstrous, vile and wicked acts you used to commit whilst you were in this world. Allah’s justice will come if not in this world then in the hereafter inshallah. Surely you can rest on that. My God is a just god and he does not punish the people who commit good acts and deeds but the people who commit inhumane and barbaric acts and who transgress beyond any limits Allah has set whether it be human decency, morality, religious sacredness or any other limit.

 

Inshallah I hope for a quick resolution to our matters inshallah and may Allah side with the wronged against the sinners and doers of wrong, vile and wicked acts. Ameen.

 

Sakhar.

[General Duke]

The whole project was a clan led one, Xasan Dahir Cayrow and IndaCade fought for the clan and are still doing so.

 

There has been no defection, just like there never was any fuel embargo around Baidoa, its all fake. The latest news is that another crushing blow has been delivered to the clowns.

 

The fighting will be quite tough as they have their backs to the wal, fighting inside their last area and no were else to flee to.

 

They are not given any safe route out, either surrender or die..

[xiinfaniin]

Sakhar, you could’ve condemned yesterday’s acts with fewer words. It was barbaric and inhuman. No justifications for such a savage ritual on any grounds. Period.

 

But where were you yaa Sakhar when the nomadic families were massacred and blown in to pieces by C-130 gunners? Where were you when the pious were killed their deaths left for the hyenas of Jubbooyinka? Did you not know it happening? Where you not satisfied then to see them mowed down?

 

Answer me adeer. This time try to speak with more truth then grammar. Please.

[Paragon]

Inshallah I hope for a quick resolution to our matters inshallah and may Allah side with the wronged against the sinners and doers of wrong, vile and wicked acts. Ameen.

Sakhar, aamiin. But it really is buffling. I am just as puzzled and as saddened as you Sakhar. With your right mind, how can you pray to Allah to help Christian Orthodox troops over Muslim resistance? How does that compute?

[Fabregas]

Emotional propoganda from the invasion, occupation and rape sympathisers......I will not be buying it for sure...Wadaadi la dulmiyey, dumarki Soomali ee la kufsaday iyo masakiinti bombka lagu rusheeyey waxba lagama qorin oo xita lama odhan waa khalad. Qar baa xita yidhi "Sax bay uu leeyihin(America) iin ay Qaracaan".......

[Fiqikhayre]

I don't engage in hypocrisy Adeer and you know that I always say what I think and believe rather what people like to hear or what people support most.

 

I felt abhorrent and I disliked that bombardment you're talking about. The dead nomads and their cattle. But I blamed all this on ina Daahir Aweys who said he will safeguard his home town of Mogadishu and fight in Kismaayo instead. There was a mutiny in Kismaayo that's why he went further south.

 

That guy is to be blamed. The people being killed where my people. Although I feel pain for every muslim, I do feel so even more pain, when my people were being targeted and you know what I mean. However this people perished and ought to be rest in peace and Allah will avenge them truly inshallah. However this man I'm talkin about where killed by fellow Somalis, that's not my problem but what happened after their death adeer is what I'm shocked and saddened about.

 

The people in the Jubbooyinka were killed by Americans and the governement did not even know about it happening no one informed them and I solely blame that man called ina Daahir Aweys for those atrocities. Atleast the people of Jubbooyinka were not mistreated after their death but they were given a good muslim burial.

 

What do you say about the man from Hiiraan torched alive whilst confessing 'Laa Illaaha Illallaahu, Muxamadurrasuulullaah'?

 

This bodies adeer were disfigured and mutilated, spat at, stoned by not a foreign people but people claiming to be Sunni Muslims and Somalis on top of that, can you see something wrong with it? Adeer this is a gross matter and very serious to me. I care if kaafirs bombared or kill muslims but what about people claiming Somalinimo, Islaanimo and then setting ablaze living people and disfiguring, playing, spitting, inserting sharp objects, stoning, laughing, taking souvenir pictures?

 

Is that normal? Adeer this act needs to be condemned in the harshest possible way even more than the gunship you're speaking off Adeer. This people were not even respected at their death. Their dead corpses were used as some kind of entertainment for a whole neighbourhood.

 

Xiin and Paragon, what would you say if I would come to you and say 'Guys today there's a burning and beating of a follow muslim Somali body, let's go and take part in the actions. You take a shoe, sandals and jump up and down on that dead corpse whilst Paragon injects and inserts sharp objects into the dead corpse, whilst your little nephew is throwing hard rocks at the dead bodies head and Paragons cousin is spitting at that dead muslim corpse and your older brother Xiin actually setting the whole body ablaze but before that, you all take a picture together as a souvenir. Walle those that do not have any mercy instilled in them will not be shown any mercy. If I were there I would die in the process protecting and safeguarding that dead person. Adeer you cannnot even reveal or talk about the state of a dead body you washed let alone burning and disfiguring it. Who is only allowed to punish with fire? Isn't it Allah? Are this people equalling themselves to Allah by punishing like he does? Wallahi this is a sad state of affairs. This is the worst thing I've ever seen. People claiming to be 100% muslims and not even one single person prevented that evil, vile and wicked act. Mogadishu is doomed Adeer, the people who participated in it have nothing to do with me nor my religion. I even refuse to acknowledge them as fellow Somalis. I see them lower as human beings.

 

This is a gross act, either lets condemn it in the harshest way possible but let's not compare things here Adeer. This is beyond comparison. An act of kuffars and that of people claiming to be muslims is what we're talking about. It was headline news in the whole world, why? Because it's barbaric, inhumane and nobody does it Adeer. Get that in your head. No one disfigures, mutilates, urinates and sets ablaze a dead muslim corpse or human being for that matter.

 

To Paragon: What Muslim resistance? I see a qabiil uprising burning and mutilating dead, alive bodies but not a muslim resistance.

[Taako Man]

Is a muslim resistance one in which muslims are mutilated, burnt, spat on and pictured on?

[xiinfaniin]

^^Fair enough yaa Sakhar.

 

But I blame gardarro intead…

 

Gardarooy waxbaad geysataa goor iyo ayaan e

Gafkii aad samaysaa batiyo godobahaagiiye

Gashi aan yarayn baad qabtaa jeer lagaa gudo e

Waxaad goyso moyee lawaa nimaad gargaartaaye

 

***

Gurigii barwaaqaysan baad gubi taqaanaaye

Oo ruuxaad gadhqaadaa wallee guul ma xoogsade e

Adiga iyo geeridu dadkii waad gablamiseene

Adigoon gadaal uga hadhayn mid iska kaa giijay

 

***

Qofkii tabartii gees kaa mareey wax u gaboobaane

Gaag baa uso hadha kollay ruuxii kaa gudo e

Adoo gabi ka tuuruu arkaa kii garaad xumiye

Adaa gaanbiyaay howl yaraan soo galaangala e

 

***

Adigaa dhibaato u gasba oo reer gadaafo ahee

Adaa garab ku taaglee yidhaa geesi baad tahaye

Gaasaan nin kale beeray baad guro tidhaahdaaye

Markaasuu garbada kii lahaa gama'a diidaaye

 

With that...Lets beseech Allah to guide us and get us out of this mess.

 

*****Logging off***********

[Fabregas]

Saxib, rubbish you supported the Ethiopians and their invasion of Somalia from day one. You didn't speak out agains the annihiliation of the Wadaads. You didn't speak out against the kidnapping of refugees. You didn't say anything about their illegal renditions and arresting of wadaads. You didn't say anything about the kidapping and arresting of Somali businessman from their homes. You didn't condemn them for raping Somali woman. Never mind the gross human rights violations carried against Somalis and other ethnic groups in Ethiopia. You even had the audacity to say it was "haram" to oppose the Ethiopians. You say you blame Dahir Aweys for what happened in Juba. But Abdullahi Yusuf was saying as early as 2001, that there were terrorists in Somalia.The Government is still telling the international community there is Alqaeda in Muqdisho. Imagine if they bomb Muqdisho homes. Who will you blame Dahir Aweys or Salad Ali Jeele? You even wrote on this thread " Ethiopia told the clan elders, they are only fighting terrorists". If only you could blame everything in the world on Dahir Aweys and Indhacade!

[Paragon]

Cry with as much emotional tone as you wish, but the treatement those Christian tea-boys received is one which they knew is inevetable if they fall in battle. They willingly invaded a people's town, killed their men, raped their women, dismantled their organic ruling systems and yet you expect them to be treated as humans? Sxbyaal, these men who died put themselves in the category of the sub-human when they chose Ethiopian invaders as masters.

 

Wax ka dheefa. Reer Muqdisho waa laga garda-rooday markii gaalada loo soo kaashaday ee ee sida cadowtinimada ah madaafiicda loo dhacay maatidooda. Whether this was done by Ethiopians, Puntlanders or others, it doesn't make a difference. Markaa oohinta naga jooja please.

 

Are guys telling us the invaded should protect the rights of the invaders? Such ubsurdity, wallee.